The present invention relates to a microwave oven which heats and cooks according to cooking programs stored in a memory.
As the range of heating functions of microwave ovens has been expanded, the number of usable cooking methods and the effective menu which can be prepared with a microwave oven have both been increased. As the cooking menu has been expanded, manufacturers have automated microwave oven operation by using microcomputers to control microwave cooking, convection heat cooking, and compound microwave-convention heat cooking functions, making microwave oven operation simple and easy. To make the use of these automated cooking options even easier, menu keys have been provided on a control unit as described below to enable the user to easily recall specific cooking programs from the various menus.
FIG. 7 is an external view of a conventional microwave oven with a control unit on which are provided menu keys, and FIG. 8 is an expanded view of the operating panel of the control unit 1 shown in FIG. 7. This operating panel comprises a display 2, primary menu keys 3, a cancel key 4, a heat switch 5, secondary menu keys 6, a heat mode selector 7, and a timer control 8. As shown in FIG. 9, the operating panel of the control unit 1 is constructed of an overlay 10 on which are imprinted the outlines and the names of the menu keys 3 and 6 and on the back side of which are provided the menu key contacts, a circuit board 13 on which are provided input switches, a membrane sheet 11 to assure a positive contact between the contacts on the overlay 10 and the input switch contacts on the circuit board 13 when the overlay 10 is pressed at specific points, and a spacer sheet 12.
However, because the menu keys 3 and 6 are provided within a limited space on the control unit 1 in the above conventional microwave oven, there is a limitation concerning the number of menu keys which can be provided on the panel in consideration of the operational ease of the menu keys 3 and 6 and the need to easily confirm the name of each key. If this limitation was ignored and the number of menu keys were increased, there would be a trouble to select one needed menu key due to the existence of a number of needless menu keys. That is, because only one menu key is always selected at a specific point by the user, the more selectable keys increase in number, the more the difficulty increases in selecting a menu key needed.
The inventor has previously proposed the microwave oven (Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 02-118324) described below as a means of resolving this problem.
This microwave oven categorizes many types of cooking menus by cooking mode (e.g., microwave cooking and grill cooking modes), and changes the menu names shown on the operating panel of the control unit as the cooking mode is changed. This means that only a few menu names are displayed at one time on the control unit, thus improving operability, the ease of menu key confirmation, and menu key selectivity.
FIG. 10 is an external view of the above proposed microwave oven, and FIG. 11 is an expanded view of the display panel on the control unit 15 therein. This display panel comprises a display 16, plural menu name displays 17, plural menu item selector switches 18, operating mode selector switch 19, and an operating mode display 20. The menu names stored in the menu name data area 21d in the operation control unit memory 21 provided in the control unit 15 as shown in FIG. 12 are categorized by cooking mode as described above and displayed by cooking mode in the menu name displays 17. At this time, the menu name information stored in the operation control unit memory 21 is categorized by menu category (e.g., Chinese cooking, Spanish cooking) and stored together with contents information, the cooking program, visual images of the menu selection, and other information in an IC card 22, RAM card 23, or other external data storage means. FIG. 13 shows the procedure to be followed when selecting a desired menu name from among plural menu names displayed in the display area of the control unit 15.
For example, if the user selects the IC card for Chinese cuisine and inserts this card into the slot of the microwave oven, the contents information is loaded into the contents data area 21a of the operation control unit memory 21, the cooking program into the cooking program area 21b, the menu image data into the menu image data area 21c, and the menu name data into the menu name data area 21d. Then, based on the contents data loaded into the contents data area 21a, the contents of the contents data (e.g., the menu categories or the number of menus in each cooking mode in the loaded IC card) displayed on the display 16 are displayed for easy confirmation by the user. Then, as shown in FIG. 13 (a), the operating mode changes to the clock mode, and the current time is displayed on the display 16.
If the operating mode selector switch 19 is pressed twice at this time, the operating mode passes through the MICROWAVE cooking mode shown in FIG. 13 (b) and enters the GRILL cooking mode as shown in FIG. 13 (c). If the menu item selector switch 18 for the menu name G-3 displayed in the menu name display 17 is then pressed, the menu image of the selected menu name G-3 is displayed in the display 16 as shown in FIG. 13 (d). If the user confirms that this is the desired menu selection and presses the menu item selector switch 18 again to confirm the selection, the cooking program for the menu name G-3 stored in the cooking program area 21b of the operation control unit memory 21 is loaded into the cooking controller section of the microwave oven. As shown in FIG. 13 (e), informations indicating that preparations for cooking according to the menu name G-3 are completed are on the display 16 and operating mode display 20, and the display then returns to the time display in FIG. 13 (a).
Plural menus can thus be stored by menu category in an IC card 22 or RAM card 23, and the user then loads the data on the IC card 22 or RAM card 23 of the desired menu category into the operation control unit memory 211. By thus displaying the menu names in the loaded data classified by cooking mode, operability, menu selection confirmation, and selectability can be improved in menu name selection.
However, in a microwave oven as thus described, at a stage when the user is unaccustomed to this operating procedure, the user is likely to be unfamiliar with the contents of the menus stored in the IC card 22 or RAM card 23. As a result, when the user has not had a concrete idea about what to prepare from among the available choices, it is necessary to select an IC card 22 or RAM card 23, select a cooking mode, select and confirm a menu name through a repeated process of trial and error in order to find what menus can be cooked by the control unit 15, thus requiring to user to make plural menu selections. In other words, this menu selection procedure is inappropriate when the user has not decided specifically what menu to prepare, or when the user is unfamiliar with the contents of the menus stored in the IC card 22 or RAM card 23.
The inventors have also proposed a microwave oven comprising a function unit 25 as shown in FIG. 16 Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 01-212827). This microwave oven displays an image of the finished dish prepared with plural menus selected by combining food materials specified by the user. The user then selects the desired menu by referring to the finished image of the plural menus shown on the display to set the cooking program of the selected menu.
FIG. 14 shows the top part of the control unit 26 provided on the front of the above microwave oven, and FIG. 15 is a partial cross section of the control unit 26. The function unit 25 is mounted inside the cover panel 27. FIG. 16 is an external view of the function unit 25 comprising a display 28, main materials input switches 29, and auxiliary materials input switches 30. This function unit 25 also comprises a data storage means, into which a sequence of cooking data is loaded from an external data storage means such as an IC card or RAM pack, and controls the menu selection operation based on this cooking data.
The menu selection operation of this function unit 25 is described below with reference to FIG. 17.
In FIG. 17 the operating procedure of the switches is shown on the right side, and the contents of the display appearing as a result of that switch operation are shown on the left side. When the menu selection mode switch 31 is pressed, the main materials indicators 32 flash to prompt the user to select the main materials. The user then refers to the printed illustrations of the main materials displayed in the main materials input switches 29 to find and press the switch for the main material used, "beef" in this example, thus, the selection of the main material to be used is completed. The selected main material indicator 33 for the selected material, "beef" then lights steady, indicating to the user that "beef" is selected.
The main materials information stored in the storage means of the function unit 25 are then retrieved to get the auxiliary materials information relating to the selected main material "beef", e.g., Chinese bamboo and Chinese cabbage in this example. The selected auxiliary materials indicators 34 for the found materials, Chinese bamboo and Chinese cabbage, then flash to prompt the user to make a selection. Referring to the printed images on the switches for auxiliary materials with their indicators flashing, the user then presses the auxiliary materials input switches 30 for desired auxiliary materials to make the selection. As a result, the controller then retrieves the available menus for menu selections which use the specified main material, "beef", and auxiliary materials, Chinese bamboo and Chinese cabbage, and shows on the display 28 an illustration of the finished menu selection found.
If there is no menu selection according to the material combination comprising beef, Chinese bamboo and Chinese cabbage, the reconstruction of the inputted materials combination is executed for the retrieval for the second time in a such manner that the combination of two subsidiary materials is disorganized, namely beef-Chinese bamboo, and beef-Chinese cabbage. In addition, it is not always necessary to select auxiliary materials for which the auxiliary materials are flashing in order to let the user to understand at a glance that some or all of those keys should be selected to couple with the main material for menu retrieval. Thus, in those cases in which an auxiliary materials input switch 30 for which the selected auxiliary materials indicator 34 is not blinking is selected, the controller will execute retrieval for menu according to only the main material selected.
As is clear from the descriptions given above, even when the user does not have any concrete idea about what to prepare or is unfamiliar with the contents of the menus stored in the IC card or RAM pack, the invention allow the user of menu selection according to the elements those can be handled by the user's subjective judgements such as like or dislike. Specifically, the materials selection out of printed illustrations on the material input switches 29, 30, and the menu selection out of the finished images illustrations on the display 28. Thus, a microwave oven as described above eliminates the problem that the user must select plural menus by a process of trial and error.
As thus described, a microwave oven with which main and auxiliary materials are specified and a menu selection is then made is particularly effective when the user does not have any concrete idea what to eat, or is not quite sure about the menus stored in the IC card or RAM pack. However, when selecting a menu which the user has made some choices previously, the user must still enter the main and auxiliary materials and then select the desired menu from among the plural menu choices retrieved according to the materials combination specified by him. In other words, the user have a concrete menu name of his desired menu, and he is sure about the contents of the IC card where the cooking information of the desired menu is stored. In spite of these knowledge available, the user will be forced to specify materials to be inputted and select the desired menu out of plural outputted menu images.
In addition, when the user is not quite sure about the subsidiary materials to be coupled or his specification is totally not correct, selection by trial and error or repeated operation is necessary. This means that the microwave oven described above does not allow the user to recall the menu information smoothly though he is quite sure about his desired menu name.
Moreover, because the illustrations of main materials are printed onto the main materials input switches 29, a given main materials input switch 29 cannot be assigned to another main material. As a result, it is not possible to handle extreme changes in cooking modes by replacing the IC card with which the main materials used may be very different. Furthermore, the size of the display 28 is relatively small compared to the size of the function unit 25. As a result, the illustrations of finished menu selections shown for the user on the display 28 have not satisfactory enough for stimulating the appetite for the displayed menu choices, and the menu selection operation is not made easy.